Outlandish

This year has been particularly bad weather-wise; we moved from Spring straight to Autumn (read: we moved from rain straight to more rain). And now it seems that global warming might ensure that in the future 'Summer' will become a word that can only be used in past tense, because warm waters (and thus weather) will flee from these latitudes. It's little bit hard to try and stay positive when the shelf of clouds on top of us is so  thick and consistent that we live in constant darkness. The difference between day and night becomes more and more obscure every day as the days also get shorter. Oh yeah, and then there's this rain. Like, non-stop rain, which I thought was a physical impossibility... Unless you live in the monsoon area, which I do not. But it turns out that there is an area, the very last corner of Europe where all clouds gather and dump their load throughout the year. And that place is called Estonia and I, an imbecile moron, decided to move here...

After a very slow summer things have gotten quite hectic at work, on top of which my colleague is working from another country until the end of October. Most of our communication is done through Watsapp, and since text messages don't have expressions or a tone of voice, sarcasm doesn't always work in text form when you are rushed off your feet anyway. Communication difficulties on top of multiple projects and huge recruiting campaigns (in a language I am not fluent enough in) have caused a lot of stress which has come out as a lot of bickering and arguing. And I don't want to argue with my colleague, we're supposed to get on, which has added another level of stress. I must say, I am rather good at stressing out, so I was in serious need of a break. And as if Tallink was thinking along the same lines they had put boat tickets into a very nice sale last week and I got a Tallinn-Helsinki-Tallinn cruise for 30€. Unheard of! So weekend at home it was. I d...

Loneliness. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it in English as it does in Finnish. In Finland loneliness has been in headlines for a while now because it's becoming a huge social problem: 400 000 lonely people in a country of 5 million. Scientifically explained loneliness is an involuntary experience and emotion. For a lot of people in the world this might sound incomprehensible, but even in a metropolis you can be completely alone. I would know.   As a Finn I enjoy being on my own every now and then. Nothing beats a lazy Sunday alone at home or in a café with a book. During busy weeks or months I see those lonely days as a bit of luxury. But a human being, especially me, has a limit with the voluntary loneliness. For some that limit is just a need to ask an opinion or telling someone what happened to them today. The simplest thing, but it can be devastating if you don't have anyone to ask or to tell. Others, like me, have the limit much lower: just the need to s...

Days are getting shorter (according to Facebook statuses in Finland the situation has already got critical: only couple hours of daylight a day) but the raging colour schemes everywhere are bringing some solace. It's already November so I'm starting to feel like I'm on the "winning side" time-wise: December (= home) is only a month away!   You know that saying "Ignorance is bliss". I've come to realize how true it is. I notice a teeny tiny difference in my well-being when I don't watch the news for a while. A complete ignorance of how bad a place this world is feels nicer. Also at work I have thought how lucky I am to have such amazing team mates, but turns out that is only due to the fact that I don't understand a word of their conversations in the office. Turns out there's just as much bullying going on as there would be anywhere else, and like usually it's women who are the cruelest. Also, I've known since the beginnin...

The drive to Zuberec on Friday evening last week was quite bad: it was already dark and it was raining so hard that you could barely see the red back lights of the car in front. But one thing I did notice on the way: a huge castle lit up on top of a steep hill. Turns out it was the Orava Castle (Oravsky Hrad). I love castles (because I still want to be a princess...) so I wanted to at least stop on the way home on Sunday long enough to get a picture of it.  We did stop. But the moment we got up to the castle door it was literally closed in our faces. Closing time. Suomen Leijona !?!?!? The legend of the castle says that the noblemen owning the land made a pact with a devil because they wanted a castle that couldn't be built by any man. If the devil succeeded in building the castle in one day the noblemen were fine, but if not they would go to Hell. Obviously the devil didn't succeed (on purpose I expect) and the noblemen went to Hell. In proven fac...

I don't think I'm quite right in the head because I keep putting myself  voluntarily into situation that are far from my comfort zone. This time especially I found myself close to the limit. Last time I made the big mistake of drinking too much on Friday. This time I knew better... But I apparently still had one shot too many. I blame the altitude, it fucked up my body because normally I wouldn't have been so hungover on Saturday morning! (Comparison: Turku approx. 10m above sea level, Bratislava 140m above sea level, Zuberec (where our cottage was) much higher.) Not so bad though that a proper portion of scrambled eggs, bacon and a bucket of coffee wouldn't fix! The weather for Saturday was forecasted to be bad. Rain and a lot of clouds. So I comforted myself by thinking that we would take it easy. And we did find a route that was supposed to take approximately three hours and which would take us to some mountain lakes. So, we got our gear together a...